He said: "It's instantly recognisable. You don't need to read and write. You don't need to know much about history. You see that flag, you know what it is. Immediately, right across the world."

"Why the white flag is a symbol of surrender is shrouded in mystery, perhaps lost in time. It is thought the Chinese used it as a symbol of mourning 3-4 thousand years ago."

"That morphed into a sign of surrender. What it certainly does do as a blank canvas of white is it is not projecting darkness or the colours of a particular side."

"Everybody can have this white flag. It has spread into other facets of our lives. If a boxer is taking too much of a beating – why do they throw in a white towel? There's a relationship of surrender."

"It's going to survive for centuries as that symbol. Also, in western cultures, because of the Bible and the white dove being the symbol of peace."

"This must all have come together to make white a non-confrontational easily recognisable colour."

"You can see it from a distance and you need no education. You just know what it is the moment you see it, which is partially the definition of a flag that works."